Learning Something New, One Brew at a Time When I was working before retiring in October 2025, I lived by the motto “Learn something new every day.” In my job, I had to. The environment was constantly changing, and staying on top of things meant continuing to learn, adapt and adjust. Turns out, retirement hasn’t…
When Good Beer Goes Bad: The Paso Pioneer Ale Mystery Sometimes the best lessons in home brewing come from the batches that don’t go according to plan. I’m not sure exactly what happened on brew day. It’s been eight days since I bottled the Paso Pioneer Ale, and I was excited to finally have this…
Bottles Begone! Taking the Next Step into Kegging Bottles begone! I’m taking another step forward in my homebrewing journey, moving from bottling to kegging. It had been nearly a month since I started messaging with a local seller on Facebook Marketplace about an Edgestar kegerator. From the description, it sounded like it had everything I…
The Next Step: Brewing the Estrella Pale Ale I made a quick three-day trip to Rancho Bernardo, about 20 miles north of San Diego, to pick up my sister and spend some time with Mom, who is living in a retirement community. On the way south, I made one of my required stops: SoCal Brewing…
Hell yeah! It’s brew day! Paso Pioneer Ale I was up and working in the “brew house” by 6:30 a.m. Okay, to be completely honest, I was running back and forth between the garage and the kitchen. Such is the glamorous life of a homebrewer. Right now, I’ve just added the strike water to the…
The Paso Pioneer Ale Is Coming Together I’ve been working on the label design for the upcoming Paso Pioneer Ale, a beer that pays homage to the Paso Robles Pioneer Days, which takes place every October. I’m especially excited to be part of this year’s celebration through my affiliation with California Coast Beer Company. There…